


gatling gun

by nightlight_has_regrets



Category: Darkest Dungeon (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, the canonical penance seeking through flagellation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22655773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightlight_has_regrets/pseuds/nightlight_has_regrets
Summary: what is the gatling gun party build like for the others in the party?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	gatling gun

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this and then passed out

it is a terrifying strategy.

Dismas and his companion highwayman, a more recent arrival who's name Reynauld keeps meaning to learn and always getting distracted from learning, describe it as being similar to what they call a 'gatling gun'. they say that the gun doesn't exist in anything but theory, that there simply isn't a way to build it yet, not with this level of technology.

the gatling has not one, but _six_ barrels, which rotate with each shot fired so that the next bullet can be fired immediately and that the just fired barrel can cool, allowing for seemingly constant firing. it would be built to reload itself, with human intervention only required when the bullet supply ran out, though the way for that to be achieve still alluded craftsmen.

it would be huge, requiring at minimum four men, and weighing more than the plague doctor, Paracelsus, does soaking wet, forcing it to be moved on wheels through the battlefield. it would be slow.

in contrast, their gatling gun has only two barrels, two men, and is unnervingly fast for just how much death they bring, Light forgive them all.

it is made of heavy bullets packed with plenty of powder, the recoil forcing the shooter to stagger back, and the person behind them to have to trade positions to maintain their line. but this allows the firer time to reload, so that when their companion steps back, they can swap again. it is a deadly, deadly dance. those bullets have torn through flesh like rotted sheets, and through mail and plate in far too few rounds.

it is an intelligent strategy.

Reynauld finds that when they use it, the wear on his resolves comes less from the monsters and abominations that they have set out to cleanse, and more from his allies. what will war become when this strategy becomes common place, when the best armor that can be bought only offers a few moments of protection? what strategies will be developed to break the gatling gun? how many will die, pummeled and torn by cold and unstopping iron?

he prays, offering his failings, his worries, his questions to the Light, but he does not receive an answer. perhaps the Light frowns upon the sins that mar his faith.

he finishes the prayer and stands. he will go to repent of his sins. to make amends.

to silence his imagination in blood.


End file.
